China also introduced a robot dog with a machine gun on its back

China displayed remote-controlled robot dogs capable of firing machine guns during military exercises with Cambodia earlier this month. According to a video broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV, these battery-powered “robot dogs” can operate for 2 to 4 hours. They have the ability to move forward and backward, lie down and jump.

Additionally, robot dogs are able to plan routes, approach targets and avoid obstacles. According to CCTV, one of the robots shown in the video was equipped with a gun to shoot at targets. Chinese soldier Chen Wei said that robot dogs “will serve as new participants in urban combat operations” and can replace humans in the tasks of identifying and defeating targets.

The robot dogs may have been supplied by Chinese manufacturer Unitree, whose robots are listed on the company's website for between $2,800 and $100,000.

The United States Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) is already fielding armed robotic rifles, called robot dogs, equipped with four-legged Vision 60 unmanned ground vehicles (Q-UGVs). These systems, developed by Ghost Robotics of Philadelphia, have long been on the testing ground of the US Department of Defense.